Kaierau stalwart Merv Benson’s passing ends lengthy rugby career

Kaierau groundsman and committeeman Merv Benson surveys the handiwork of a working bee to clear the way for a new gymnasium at the Devon Rd country club. 25 November 2015. PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY

The sudden death of Kaierau stalwart Merv Benson last week ended the lengthy career of one of Whanganui’s best-known club rugby administrators.

The 79-year-old life member of the club joined Kaierau 50 years ago and held numerous key positions including live-in custodian, club captain, committee member, team manager, and bar manager.

In his early years, Merv played for and was on the committee of the Fordell Cricket Club, which played its home matches at the Devon Road Country Club, with Fordell later changing its name to the Kaierau Cricket Club.

Merv had played junior rugby for the Pirates under-21 team and in 1973, became a Fordell member of the Kaierau Country Club Committee. Two years later he was voted onto the executive of the Kaierau Rugby Club.

He was co-club captain between 1976-81, was appointed club manager in 1994, was club captain in 2005-06 and he managed the premier team that beat Ratana 28-12 in the championship final at Spriggens Park in Kaierau’s centennial year.

During his most recent stint as club captain, in 2005, Kaierau last won the Whanganui combined premier championship, beating Ruapehu 30-18 in the final under skipper Denning Tyrell and coach Phillip Morris.

That year the Maroon and Golds were unbeaten in 15 games, scoring 952 points and conceding 100. To cap off a memorable season, Kaierau completed a double with the seniors beating Pirates 32-29 for the double. Kaierau was also the champion club (Weekes Cup) in the union in 2005.

Merv had a long association with the Oriental-Rongotai club, attending 17 consecutive Easter tournaments involving the two clubs plus Feilding and Napier Tech.

Considering he undertook such a remarkable range of duties at the Country Club — including manning the bar, registering players, cleaning the dressing rooms, mowing and marking grounds, helping look after club sheep in earlier years, ground announcing and looking after the scoreboard, clearing the mail, checking team sheets and ordering provisions for the club — his death leaves a massive workload for the Kaierau executive to replace.

Merv Benson goes down as a standout personality in helping Kaierau develop as a successful mixed-sports-multimillion-dollar club that now caters to rugby, touch rugby, netball, boxing, and archery.

Kaiwhakas like park

Spriggens Park may be the home base for Marist but the club’s premier side has not beaten Kaierau at the ground since back in 2018.

Since losing that fixture 29-28, Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau have beaten Dave Hoskin Carriers Marist 35-31 in 2019, 17-7 in 2020, 30-5 in 2021, and 32-19 last season in four visits to the park.

Add in a 43-5 licking at the Devon Road Country Club during the first round of the current Tasman Tanning-sponsored championship back on May 13, and Saturday’s return fixture may seem a foregone conclusion.

Marist, however, are a team that can never be taken lightly. Since the turn of the century, the Kaiwhakas hold a slender 24-22 victory margin in clashes between the two city clubs.

Thanks to winning the past four games as visitors, Kaierau have managed 12 wins at the park during the new millennium compared with Marist’s eight, with the greens also winning 38-17 on the racecourse in 2015.

The goalkicking of Ethan Robinson, now in Australia, played a key role in Kaierau’s away victories last season (41 pts for the year), 2021 (91 pts), and 2020 (88 pts) with Shandon Scott scoring 93 pts in 2019.

In Marist’s most recent victory (29-28 in 2018), Josaia Bogileka (60 pts), Ashton Coates (59), and Cameron Crowley (10 tries) featured for the club that season, and Cameron Scott (124 pts) for Kaierau.

That was the last time Marist won the Weekes Cup as the overall champion club.

Defending champions Waverley Harvesting Border, already assured of a home semifinal on Saturday week, will start red-hot favourites to clinch the Barracks Bar Challenge Shield and a $500 voucher with the scalp of McCarthy Transport Ruapehu at Dallison Park on Friday night.